It wasn’t
the rejection that got to me. Although
it’s a disappointment, rejection tells me I have more to learn, and need more
practice writing. It was the feel of the
rejection that led me take drastic measures.
I’d spent a
few years writing a novel and studying the specifics of a very particular
market. I had probably spent six months
just checking off the publisher’s unusually long and detailed list of
requirements for every aspect of the characters, plot, word length, setting, dialogue
and manuscript formatting. (You know
what I’m talking about!) When I thought
it was perfect in every way I submitted it, waited the requisite three to six
months and then received a short email saying it wasn’t what they were looking
for.
Now I’ve
received loads of rejections for manuscripts I’ve submitted. I’d always learned from them, been inspired
to correct my mistakes, revised and resubmitted. But this one felt different. It was as if I stood at the door offering a
precious gift of my time, energy and heart, and without a word, my offering was
knocked to the ground, the door was slammed shut, and the bang reverberated in
the silence.
Yes, I
understand that editors are busy and certainly can’t respond personally and
specifically in every rejection letter.
But some of the largest publishing houses in the world have responded to
my submissions with professionalism, respect, courtesy and at least a short
phrase of explanation for their refusal.
So perhaps I’d been spoiled up until then and now had finally
experienced one of the more typical responses.
But then I
had another unpleasant revelation. After
I dusted myself off and sat back down at the keyboard, I realized my novel was
so tailor-made for that one unique market that I couldn’t actually revise and
resubmit it anywhere else.
All that
work for all those years wasted? And I
couldn’t even learn from it? What good
was that?
So that was
the pain. Now for the gain.
If that’s
the way the industry was going to treat its novice novel writers, I was going
to have to find a more practical way to hone my writing skills. It just so happened that just a few months
prior, my writing group had invited one of our members to speak about her
experiences writing for magazines. For
our purely novel-writing group, this was almost unheard of. But as I recalled this workshop, I decided to
look into writing shorter pieces.
I returned
to my Writer’s Market and scanned the
magazine categories. None of them interested
me…until I came upon the children’s magazines!
How could I have I missed that genre? I worked with kids at my job, I still
cherished all my own (and my sons’) children’s books, taught Sunday school, and
had even submitted my poems to a children’s magazine when I was a child. So, I found the Institute for
Children’s Literature and signed up for their course. And there began a new world of possibilities,
providing some of my greatest writing enjoyment and success.
I still
re-read my novels and will work on them again one day. Looking back, I can add that experience to my growing list
of times when God has used something painful to bring about a significant
change for the better. It’s so true: we
actually can, by faith, give thanks in everything!
Posted by Ramona
www.happilywriting.com
